We have a Turken now.  She is lovely and her name is Gretchen.  For the uninitiated a Turken is a breed of chicken. The breed also goes by the name of Transylvanian Naked Neck or just plain Naked Neck. I won’t tell you what Ram likes to call them (but you can guess). The Turken is certainly striking as they lack feathers starting on the lower part of the head and extending down to the crop. The American Standard for this breed requires the birds have a feather tuft about halfway down the neck. At first glance you may think that the turken is a cross between a turkey and a chicken, but this is incorrect. They are all chicken. It was first breed in Hungary, the purported purpose to make killing and plucking easier. Our hen is of the Buff variety. She’s exceptionally friendly, gentle and attached at the hip (only figuratively) to our new Salmon Faverolle (Ezme, the “love chicken”). So far all visitors to Lucky Cluck have had an opinion, a strong one I might add, about Gretchen the Turken. They either love her or are repulsed by her. I’m happy to say more people seem to love her than feel utter repulsion. Personally I think she’s just dandy and Ms. Fox deserves a big thank you for talking me into getting her (even if it did take three years of convincing).

Have you ever seen anything so cute and fluffy? I was clucking lucky to get out to the farm to see these three adorable chicks. Get out there soon to see them when they are still extemely fluffy. Wait. Miss Vi is the mother so they may always be extremely fluffy!

Miss Viola is finally a mother, three little ones hatched out on Monday May 12 just a day after Mother’s Day. Two are dark gray and one is light gray, all appear to be a mix of Jimmy and Miss Viola which should make for an interesting mixed breed. They all have feathered feet. Once she forms a stronger bond with the chicks we’ll be moving her to a mini coop where they can all run around together with no worries about the neighboring crows.

The Newport Loyalty Days Parade was held this weekend and Lucky Cluckers were a hit! It was a year ago today when Ram decided that we should be in this parade and we all knew he was right and that there would be no stopping him when it came to designing the float. Throughout the year he worked with others to make six original and unique chicken masks. His mom even sewed a costume for one lucky clucker to wear, we named the cosume wearer Cluckana. Linda was Clukana in the parade and she was fabulous, even going so far as to “lay” candy for the children in the street. Doug was unstoppable as the mad rooster, I’m certain he burned a full day’s worth of calories running around and wowing the crowd. We had some special chicken tunes playing on Def Tech’s groovy sound system and our float cruised down hwy. 101 with the help of our DJ driver Anson. Everyone had a great time dancing and singing and doing the chicken dance. AND our float wasn’t overlooked by the judges either as we were awarded a Special Award ribbon at the start of the show.

We can’t wait until next year’s parade and hopefully we inspired at least one crowd member to get their own chickens!